The original transom name plate from the Orca II boat from the production of Steven Spielberg's blockbuster classic Jaws (Universal, 1975).

Two boats portrayed Quint's (Robert Shaw) fishing vessel in the iconic film. One was a functional boat, (originally named, “Warlock") which was purchased by the film's production designer, Joe Alves, and then re-painted and modified to become the production-used boat on the water known as the Orca I. The other boat was a production-made replica featuring a fiberglass hull built on top of a hydraulics system to film the sequences when the boat needed to sink after being attacked by the shark. This “stunt” boat was known as the Orca II. The Orca II contained this hero transom panel featuring the name of the boat, which was then replaced with three different balsa wood versions that would easily break apart when the ship was struck by the animatronic shark.

The panel (most likely knotty pine) is affixed with hand-cut fiberboard letters, which are mounted with nuts and bolts, then painted overall with ochre-colored pigments to give it an aged look, matching the transom of the Orca I. Present on the verso are two strings, including a metal one, that were added after the production so that the piece could be hung.

This name plate can be seen at approximately 1 hour and 56 minutes into the film, as Brody (Roy Scheider) and Quint desperately try to pull up Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) submerged in the Shark Cage as it is being attacked by the shark. It has been screen-matched to

in the film and photo-matched to both on-set photos and behind-the-scenes photos of the construction of the Orca II that can be found in the books Jaws: Memories from Martha's Vineyard, Revised and Updated by Matt Taylor (Moonrise Media, 2025) and Joe Alves: Designing Jaws by Dennis L. Prince (Titan Books, 2019). A copy of each book is included with this lot.

Numerous points of identification were used to authenticate the panel, including scratches, dents, pigment patterns, lettering shapes and spacing, bolt locations, and most notably the location of several knots in the wood which match up perfectly with knots visible in vintage photographs of the stunt boat transom before it was painted in the boatshed on Fuller Street in Edgartown, Massachusetts, and are also visible in footage from the film in the aforementioned Shark Cage scene.

The original name letters from the Orca I are currently on display at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. This is the first time the existence of the name letters from the Orca II have ever come to light, and the fact that they still remain attached to the original backing plank was key to the identification process.

Accompanied by a letter of authenticity dated June 13, 1996 and signed by two attorneys from the state of Connecticut, which documents the original acquisition of the sign from a collection of discarded theatrical props in Martha's Vineyard during the summer of 1974, and then further chain of ownership. The letter is also notarized by a Connecticut Notary Public, dated August 31, 1996.

11.5 x 56.75 x 1.5 in; 29.21 x 144.15 x 3.81 cm

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